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We’re now just a matter of weeks away from one of the biggest fights in UFC history, as UFC 229 will finally see the long-awaited fight between UFC Lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and former titleholder – and the biggest star in the sport – Conor McGregor.
Practically everyone knows how McGregor got to this point and all about his biggest fights – vs. Mendes, vs. Aldo, vs. Diaz, vs. Alvarez – but Khabib’s journey has been a slightly longer one, albeit just as successful. The Dagestani fighter is 26-0 in MMA with 10 UFC victories to date, and he’s beaten some absolute killers along the way.
Here are Khabib’s 5 most impressive performances inside the Octagon.
#1 vs Thiago Tavares, UFC on FX 7 – 01/19/13
Coming into his fight with Thiago Tavares in January 2013, Khabib was determined to send a message to the UFC, the fans, and his fellow Lightweights. He’d actually struggled somewhat in his previous fight – a decision win over Gleison Tibau – with some fans feeling Tibau should’ve been given the nod. And for this showdown, he was stepping right into the hornet’s nest – Sao Paulo, Brazil, where a partisan crowd would be cheering Tavares on.
At the weigh-in, Nurmagomedov showed off his witty side, as he wore a t-shirt with the slogan “If Sambo was easy, it’d be called jiu-jitsu”. It might’ve annoyed the Brazilian fans, but by the time the fight came around, Khabib was done joking.
The fight was just two minutes old when, after a short period of feeling out, Khabib nailed Tavares with a big step-in left uppercut. The Brazilian went crashing down and after a series of elbows – referee Dan Miragliotta letting the fight go on for too long, to be truthful – ‘The Eagle’ was declared the winner by TKO.
The fans in attendance were stunned into silence – partly in horror at a Brazilian favourite being stopped so violently, partly in awe of Khabib – and it was suddenly crystal clear that there could be no doubts – Nurmagomedov was for real.
#2: vs Abel Trujillo, UFC 160 – 05/25/13
For his next fight following the Tavares knockout, Khabib was matched with fellow up-and-comer Abel Trujillo – a large, powerful 155lber from the Blackzilians camp who was coming off a violent stoppage of former Division III wrestling champion Marcus LeVesseur. But if Trujillo thought he could test Nurmagomedov’s takedown game, he was swiftly proven wrong.
Over the course of 15 minutes, the Dagestani fighter simply dominated Trujillo – throwing the huge Lightweight around like he was a rag doll with suplexes and slams. While Khabib didn’t come especially close to putting ‘Killa’ away – the closest he came was a triangle choke attempt in the waning seconds of the opening round – he beat him down so badly that by the third, it appeared like Trujillo had mentally given up.
When it was all said and done, Nurmagomedov had completed an astonishing 21 takedowns of 27 attempts across the three rounds – setting a UFC record in the process. Perhaps more impressively, despite throwing a large 155lber around for 15 solid minutes, he didn’t appear to tire or slow down at all.
It was a performance so good that despite the presence of former collegiate and Olympic wrestlers on the UFC roster – as well as proven, brilliant MMA wrestlers like Georges St-Pierre – many observers crowned ‘The Eagle’ – who once wrestled bear cubs as a child - as the best wrestler in the promotion.
#3 vs. Rafael Dos Anjos, UFC on Fox 11 – 04/19/14
When a potential match with top contender Gilbert Melendez fell through due to a contract dispute between Melendez and the UFC, Nurmagomedov was instead matched with rising star – and future UFC Lightweight champ – Rafael Dos Anjos in the main event of the preliminary card of the UFC on Fox show in April 2014.
If fans were expecting Dos Anjos – clearly a tougher calibre of opponent than Khabib had faced to that point – to really test ‘The Eagle’, then they would’ve come away severely disappointed. It was another one-sided beatdown in favour of the Dagestani fighter, and it was one that perhaps showed off exactly why he’s such a tricky opponent more than any of his other UFC outings.
For the full fifteen minutes, Nurmagomedov put a beating on the Brazilian – swarming him with surprisingly quick flurries, taking him down at will, beating him up on the ground and never tiring for a second. At times Khabib’s striking looked rudimentary, if not wild, but it didn’t matter – he was simply too fast when coming forward for ‘RDA’ to handle.
The fact that following this loss, Dos Anjos went on to beat Benson Henderson and then wrestled the Lightweight title away from Anthony Pettis almost said more about Khabib than it did about the Brazilian. Dos Anjos held the title, but many fans felt Khabib was the uncrowned champion.
#4 vs. Michael Johnson, UFC 205 – 11/12/16
After the fight with Dos Anjos, it seemed like a title shot was almost certain to be in the future for Nurmagomedov. But due largely to a plethora of injuries, the Dagestani was unable to fight in 2015, meaning other contenders leapfrogged him. By the time he returned and beat down Darrell Horcher – a late replacement for Tony Ferguson – in April 2016, Dos Anjos was about to lose the title to Eddie Alvarez.
Nurmagomedov apparently signed a bout agreement to face Alvarez for the title at UFC 205, but instead, the promotion decided to grant the shot to Featherweight champion Conor McGregor in somewhat of a controversial move. Khabib stayed on the card, though, and fought Michael Johnson instead. Johnson was coming off the biggest win of his career over Dustin Poirier and seemed confident prior to the fight. It turned out that his confidence was misplaced.
‘The Menace’ actually had some success early on, as Khabib appeared somewhat rusty on the feet and allowed Johnson to tag him with quick, sharp punches on numerous occasions early in the first round. But once Khabib got Johnson to the ground – on his first takedown attempt, too – the fight turned into yet another beating. Johnson simply couldn’t get up from underneath the Dagestani and took a horrendous amount of punches and elbows as Khabib passed his guard like a knife going through butter.
The second round proved to be even worse for Johnson, as he didn’t even get any punches off before being taken down and beaten up. By the third round, Khabib was so confident he began to yell at Dana White between hitting Johnson, demanding a title shot. When he slapped on a kimura and forced Johnson to submit, it felt like a kind of mercy.
Demolishing a highly ranked contender in this kind of fashion sent a simple message to the rest of the division – not only was Nurmagomedov back and healthy, but he was also on a mission to get the title around his waist.
#5 vs. Edson Barboza, UFC 219 – 12/30/17
A title shot for Khabib was all set to take place in March 2017 – not against Conor McGregor, who was off preparing to fight Floyd Mayweather – but against fellow top contender Tony Ferguson for the vacant belt instead. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to happen, as Khabib ended up hospitalised due to a bad weight cut, scrapping the fight altogether.
After some extended time on the shelf, the Dagestani returned on the final card of 2017 in another non-title fight, and this time he was faced with dangerous striker Edson Barboza. The Brazilian was clearly hoping that he’d be able to replicate the early success that Michael Johnson had on the feet with Khabib, albeit with a different ending. Instead, it was yet another chapter in the domination of ‘The Eagle’.
Barboza did manage to land a couple of his trademark leg kicks, but they seemed to have no effect on the Dagestani, who simply walked through them to land punches and set up his takedowns. And once he’d got the Brazilian on the ground, Khabib absolutely demolished him, hitting him with punches and elbows to the point where he could barely stand as the first round ended.
The second and third rounds were no less dominant for Khabib, who simply put more pressure on Barboza than the Brazilian was capable of handling. Time after time, Khabib walked him down with big punches, took him down and continued the beatdown. By the time the fight was over and the decision was announced – 30-25, 30-25 and 30-24 on the judges’ scorecards – the question was whether Barboza would ever be the same again.
It was arguably the most dominant performance of Khabib’s UFC career to that point, and it came as no surprise when he won the Lightweight title in his next fight – albeit against a different opponent than was initially expected. Can Conor McGregor survive such an onslaught at UFC 229? Only time will tell.
